Nottingham Forest legend Steve Hodge has admitted his initial move away from the City Ground, to Aston Villa, was a “massive mistake”.

In a week when the two giants of Midlands football meet at Villa Park in the Championship, as they seek to bolster their promotion hopes, Hodge’s comments have been unveiled in a new book ‘Ticket to the Moon, Aston Villa: The Rise and Fall of a European Champion’ by Brummie author Richard Sydenham.

Iconic manager Brian Clough allowed the Nottingham-born Hodge to leave Forest in a £425,000 transfer in August 1985, though blocked his exit to Manchester United as he saw them as greater threat than Villa.

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Hodge, who scored 16 goals in 70 appearances at Villa, went to the World Cup with England in 1986.

Villa might have been European Champions three years earlier by that stage they were now relegation candidates.

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Hodge saw that the ambition wasn’t there at Villa, especially when his fellow midfielder Steve McMahon was sold to Liverpool days after he joined.

“It was the right club at the wrong time,” Hodge revealed in the book. “I was a bit taken aback by McMahon’s sale as I had no idea it was happening when I signed.